Louisiana & Mississippi: Seafood, Music, & Katrina

Fried Green Tomatoes with Creamy Shrimp Sauce 

The reasons we love the South: warm weather in winter, lots of seafood dishes to taste, and music venues to visit. We cooked a lot while in Alabama for a month, but as we passed through New Orleans on our way back home, we stayed in a hotel and had to (?) eat at restaurants. It was hard to rein ourselves in on the budget and diet, but we managed to enjoy some great food, as well as music. 

Hotel Richelieu, at the edge of the French Quarter

Great View

Gumbo, Milwaukee Style

Gumbo - Milwaukee Style
We tried gumbo at several different restaurants in Alabama and Louisiana in February, and they were all a bit different, and each one claimed to be "the best".  After a month back in cold, damp Wisconsin, Garry was craving some, so I gave it a try. I started with the recipe from Kevin Belton's "Big Flavors of New Orleans" cookbook, and had to make some adjustments with ingredients that were available at my local grocery, as well as cutting the quantity by half. My apologies to Mr. Belton. His PBS show, Kevin Belton's New Orleans Kitchen, is one of my favorites! He's very entertaining and passionate about cooking. I've made some other dishes from his book. I'm calling this "Milwaukee Style Gumbo", since I had to substitute frozen shrimp, crab and okra, and chicken broth instead of fish stock. I used Usinger's Andouille Sausage and Penzey's Cajun Spice mix. I also replaced green pepper with red pepper just because we don't care for green pepper. 

Gumbo - Milwaukee Style
Makes approximately 6 servings

1 box (32 oz) chicken stock or broth
1 cup water
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup flour
1 small onion, chopped
1 red or green pepper, diced
1 rib of celery, diced
1 box frozen okra
1 lb frozen raw shrimp, cleaned, shelled, deveined, thawed and rinsed
2 links Usinger's Andouille sausage
1 cup of frozen lump crabmeat 
2 TBS Penzey's Cajun Spice Mix 

Put the stock or broth in a large dutch oven with the water and bay leaf, bring to a boil and turn down to simmer. 

Make the roux (thickener for the gumbo), by warming the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the flour gradually, whisking it in. Keep stirring over medium heat with a wooden spoon as it bubbles and then begins to turn brown. Take it off the heat when it turns peanut butter color, and pour into a separate bowl. It will continue to cook a bit and turn browner. 

Flour and oil beginning to cook.
Remove from heat when it is peanut butter color.

Roux continued to cook and get darker brown after
I removed it from the pan

Wipe out the skillet, and add 2 tsp oil to the pan, along with the red or green pepper, celery, and onion. Cook about 5 minutes over medium heat. 


Add the vegetables to the simmering broth. Add 2 TBS Cajun spice mix, roux and okra. Stir well and simmer for 30 minutes. 

Note: 2 TBS of Penzey's Cajun spice mix made a medium-hot gumbo. Use more or less to your taste. 

Cut the sausage into 1/2 inch slices. Add the sausage, shrimp, crabmeat. Simmer 5 minutes. 

Don't overcook the shrimp or they will be rubbery. Serve over rice, if desired. 

The cornbread was another recipe test. I've posted the recipe, Low Fat Cornbread.